NSW Trauma App

Version 4, October 2018

Based on your feedback the following enhancements were added to the app in the version 4 release:

Timestamp is now 24hour clock

C size cylinder added to oxygen duration calculator

Regional Trauma Centres icons now in green

Helicopter times set to 250 km/hr

Home button will appear on every menu screen

Minor improvements to user interface / navigation

A number of backend modifications, keeping the Trauma App align with other system changes

Update - September 2017

As a result of being awarded a Merit award in the NSW iAwards, the NSW trauma app was entered into the National iAwards. This involved written and live pitches to peer nominees and judges from around Australia. Awards were presented in Melbourne with the NSW Trauma app winning the Public & Government division.

According to Dr Michael Dinh, ITIM’s Clinical Director, evidence suggests modern, interactive decision-support tools, such as the NSW Trauma app, contribute to reduced medical errors and improved patient outcomes. “Trauma is the most common cause of death in the first half of life. In NSW, more than 4500 trauma patients are hospitalised with moderate to severe traumatic injuries annually.”

“These types of injury are the most devastating, resulting in long hospital stays, permanent disability, and death. With trauma clinicians in more than 450 hospitals, ambulance stations and aeromedical retrieval bases across NSW, resources must be accessible immediately, whether at the scene of an accident, in a rural hospital, or in a major trauma centre” said Dr Dinh.

Dr Dinh said that “approximately 85 per cent of clinicians use medical applications on personal devices in clinical settings. The app provides a centralised portal for trauma information and works on smart phones and tablets that integrate with the ITIM website. This supports bedside clinical decisions and allows for trauma care to be more standardised, evidence-based, timely, and appropriate, wherever the patient is in NSW.”

“The Trauma App provides that access. It functions as a portable and versatile resource for all things relating to trauma care that can be accessed at the bed side or first-response site” said Dr Dinh.

Dr Yashvi Wimalasena is an Emergency Physician at Lismore Base Hospital, a Retrieval Specialist in the Greater Sydney Area Helicopter Emergency Medical Service, and the Trauma App Clinical Lead. He said “we set out to create a product to support clinicians, which has since exceeded all our expectations with regards to ease of use and wider app content.”

“The NSW Trauma App includes features such as GPS tracking to provide real time information for all the hospitals in NSW including flight, drive time from patients’ current location, hospital capabilities, as well as specialty burns and paediatrics sections” said Dr Wimalasena.

Update - June 2017

The NSW Trauma app was awarded a Merit award as part of the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) NSW iAwards in the Public & Government sector. As part of the award, the app will now also be granted entry into the Australian iAwards in August this year.

Version 3, January 2017

In conjunction with the NSW Ambulance Aeromedical Control Centre (ACC) the facilities function has been enhanced to provide:

Version 2, June 2016

We have listened, and based on direct feedback from clinicians, further development and enhancements of the NSW Trauma App has been implemented. In version 2 we have:

Improved the Adult and Paediatric burn calculators, now containing additional data fields, confirmation checks and incorporation of the new guidelines of Australian and New Zealand Burn Association (ANZBA) for burn management.

Improved access, user experience, tagging and sorting of localised guidelines. The new version contains additional guidelines and allows offline user access of the app features.

Refined several calculators together with improvements to the time stamp/check list functions and much more.

Incorporated popup messages to notify users of any available app updates.

Download

User Video

The video below provides a walk-through of the app, highlighting the many features of the app.

Background

The NSW Trauma App will ensure clinicians are supported in the care of the trauma patient and are able to manage to meet the needs of the specific traumatically injured patient. Clinicians in metropolitan, rural and remote areas require standardised, easy access to clinical support tools and up-to-date, evidence-based information to deliver optimal care. This includes the provision of trauma resources for pre-hospital and intra-hospital clinicians. All clinicians require portable and versatile amenity in trauma care that can be utilised on a smart phone or tablet operable in environments such as poor cellular or WiFi access locations.

This app is developed for all medical, nursing and allied health clinicians of NSW Health and NSW Ambulance working across the trauma continuum within the state.

The NSW Trauma App provides:

Localised guideline repository:

The Guideline repository has been provided from bodies within NSW Health including Ambulance Service of NSW (ASNSW), Local Health Districts and trauma services. The guidelines and information, sourced from public domains, are referenced and acknowledged within the app.

Specific burn injury resources:

The Institute of Trauma and Injury Management has worked with the NSW Burn Injury Network to provide Trauma resources specific to burns injuries including guidelines, checklists and additional resources

Interactive Burns Calculator:

The calculator enables automatic determination of the total body surface area (TBSA) of burn injury by allowing the user to mark the area of burn injury on a body chart. Additionally entering a weight, time since burn and fluid already administered allows automatic calculation of the fluid requirement for the first eight hours since the time of injury and the following 16 hours, expected urine output and maintenance fluids required

Detailed NSW health facility information:

Provides information such as site specific details, resource availability and contact information of more than 200 facilities. This enables onsite and remote clinicians to provide location specific advice, enabling the patient to receive timely treatment and progress through the trauma system, reducing unwarranted clinical variation.

84% of surveyed users have used the app to access guidelines, with 90% of users stating that it has improved their access to guidelines

The main restriction to not using the app more regularly for ED staff was local department’s policy on use of mobile devices

Benefits of the app relate to patients, clinicians and the trauma system through access to appropriate and timely evidence-cased trauma care, improved patient experience, easy access to clinical support tools and improved standardisation of care.